The invention relates in general to fluidic rectifiers, and, in particular, to a fluidic rectifier that develops an increasing output with increasing input amplitude.
Conventional fluidic amplifiers, such as described in the article "Fluidic Carrier Techniques" by W. A. Boothe and C. G. Ringwall, in the October 1974 Proceedings of the HDL Fluidic State-of-the-Art Symposium, Vol. III, pages 335-395, having a single output channel which is centered on the axis of the rectifier nozzle. These conventional fluidic rectifiers produce an output signal which is inversely porportional to the input signal amplitude. In other words, as the input signal amplitude increases, the DC level output signal decreases from a high level at zero input. In such fluidic amplifiers, it is difficult to detect and rectify very small amplitude input signals because the output is riding on a high level. Also, when there is a need to develop additional gain after the rectification process, it is difficult to amplify the rectified signal in a subsequent fluidic amplifier without swamping the input stage of the amplifier with an unwanted DC signal level.
In the past, bias levels in other devices such as fluidic amplifiers have been eliminated by using a center-dump to bleed off the pressure and flow. The outputs then only see differential changes around some low level. However, until the present invention, this center-dump concept has not been applied to fluidic rectifiers.